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Introducing Easy Commander - a Norton Commander style network file downloader for MS-DOS

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First post, by HunOmegared

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Hello Everyone,

It has long been a problem for me (or at least it annoyed me): when I'm working on one of my machines, how do I get files over to it (sometimes again and again)...
I simply got tired of floppies, running around with CF cards etc. , using FTP, so I made Easy Commander: a two-panel, Norton Commander style DOS program that downloads files over Ethernet from a modern PC.

screenshot.png

On the left panel is the shared folder on the host (a small Windows/Linux program: a single exe, with a window and a tray icon), the right panel shows the folders of the DOS machine.
Just like in NC F5 downloads the selected files and folders (it keeps the file dates).
F3 opens a small viewer , so you can look into a readme before you copying it.
Nothing can be uploaded, download only.

It is built on mTCP. It needs a packet driver and the usual mTCP setup. Everything fits in a single bootdisk. Useful when you playing with multiple mashines.

host-window.png

I tried it in 86Box with MS-DOS 6.22 and on real machines: Amstrad Integra AMD 5x86-133 with 8Megs of ram, and on a Cyrix 486DLC with 4Megs, 1GB CompactFlash cards as HDD, RTL8019AS ISA card).
I haven't tried it on older machine yet, that is still in progress, and I'd be very glad of any feedback!

GPLv3, source and ready-made programs:
https://github.com/HunOmegared/Easy-Commander

AI disclosure: I developed the program together with an AI assistant (Claude, Anthropic). It wrote most of the code under my direction, and I tested every build myself on real hardware.

I hope others will enjoy it and find it useful too.

-Daniel

Reply 1 of 6, by Cyberdyne

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Minimal Windows version?

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.
PS. If I upload RAR, it is a 16-bit DOS RAR Version 2.50.

Reply 2 of 6, by analog_programmer

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You wrote, that there should be a Linux version of the host part, but in the github repo I see only windows version for download. I don't use Go so I don't want to install it just to compile this.

The word Idiot refers to a person with many ideas, especially stupid and harmful ideas.
This world goes south since everything's run by financiers and economists.
This isn't voice chat, yet some people overusing online communications talk and hear voices.

Reply 4 of 6, by HunOmegared

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analog_programmer wrote on 2026-11-08, 22:28:

You wrote, that there should be a Linux version of the host part, but in the github repo I see only windows version for download. I don't use Go so I don't want to install it just to compile this.

Fair point, I've uploaded the Linux versions of the host.

Reply 5 of 6, by analog_programmer

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HunOmegared wrote on 2026-11-09, 04:08:

Fair point, I've uploaded the Linux versions of the host.

Thank you!

The word Idiot refers to a person with many ideas, especially stupid and harmful ideas.
This world goes south since everything's run by financiers and economists.
This isn't voice chat, yet some people overusing online communications talk and hear voices.

Reply 6 of 6, by DaveDDS

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FWIW: The solution I came up with (years ago, but still use today) to transfer files to/from/between DOS<>"ModernHost" is:

DDLINK: Easily move files between/To/From DOS systems

I created it to ease getting files on/off a DOS floppy booted ImageDisk system (not everyone has DOS anymore) taking minimal room (currently 17k + 5k(ish) for packet driver). The ImageDisk floppy boot uses a RAMdisk to allow for reading/writing any floppy format - which means there can be multiple files of many megabytes to move!

It can transfer over COM(serial), LPT(parallel) or PKT(network).
It does NOT use a "standard" network protocol which would reqiring a large "stack" and configuration established on your network, but instead uses it's own "packet" based network protocol.

This means it can't talk directly to SMB or TCP hosts, but it does work well on a host within DosBox. This makes for easy file transfer between:

DOS<>DOS, DOS<>Winblows, DOS<>Linux or DOS<>{any other host that can run DosBox with network support}

PS: Don't mean to "hijack" this thread, just wanting to let people reading it know about another/simple option.

https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ; "Daves Old Computers" ; SW dev addict best known:
ImageDisk: rd/wr ANY floppy PChw can ; Micro-C: compiler for DOS+ManySmallCPU ; DDLINK: simple/small filetransfer(w/o netSW)via Lan/Lpt/Com

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